Monthly Archives: July 2012

At the beginning of the year I made two resolutions – one to have a bit more direction in my project 52 and the other to take some pictures of people. I’ve not been too successful on the first point, but that’s mainly due to the obsession that has developed from the second…

I’d noticed in all my pictures that I vary rarely take pictures of people, but that they were the sort of pics I’d naturally end up looking at when looking at other peoples work – so I thought why not go on a portrait course and learn how to photograph people – seems pretty simple, and I can’t believe I hadn’t done it before…

In February I therefore booked myself into a portrait course at TipTop Studios in the Jewellery Quarter here in Birmingham, and haven’t looked back since – I was terrified initially as I had no idea what I was doing, either technically or interacting with the model – up until then, most things I shot didn’t move or talk back! So I was lucky that the first person I shot was Jess, there was a moment of blind panic when you were left in the room alone and you realise you have no idea how to direct or what to shoot, but she was lovely and the pics from that first shoot I really love.

Since then I’ve taken over 8,000 pictures, and I’m guessing that 90% are portraits – what a turn around! The picture above is of Leanne, taken with an InfraRed converted camera – I love the contrast between the tattoos and skin that the IR camera produces, and the contrast between her beauty and the skull tattoos of her sleeve – you’ll also notice the pose is quite reminiscent of many statue pictures I ended up shooting before my awakening – I like that third contrast between the classical pose and the slightly more alternative subject matter, and I’m lucky enough to be shooting with her again – can’t wait!